Holy Ghost, Holy Spirit

Holy Ghost Church & Rectory, 1927

The Church with foundations for Holy Ghost School.
Spring 1956

Holy Spirit is an educational community rooted in the Catholic tradition. It has always reflected the growth and diversity of the parish and the community surrounding it. The idea of the school was first seriously envisioned by the third pastor of the then Holy Ghost Church, Fr. John Curran, after his first arrival in 1951.

At this time, the surrounding community was growing rapidly. The Glenmoor Gardens and Cabrillo Park housing developments brought a sharp increase in the population, and the need for a parish school became more urgent. Fr. Curran began buying land around the church grounds from neighbors, which could be used in accommodating the envisioned school buildings. Fr. Curran left Holy Ghost in 1953, but his work continues.

First Day of School, September 1956

Thanks to a sizable donation by the Brophy sisters, the goal became a reality. Ground was broken for the school in February 1956, and in September, Holy Spirit School opened it’s doors and welcomed its first four classes: grades first through fourth. In 1961, the school’s founders, the Holy Names Sisters, saw the success of their efforts when Holy Spirit graduated its first class. For the next quarter century, the sisters steered the course of the school, molded and influenced the lives of countless students and their families.

On Pentecost Sunday, 1969, at the dedication of the newly enlarged church, Bishop Floyd Begin officially changed the name of Holy Ghost Church and school, to Holy Spirit.

When the Holy Names Sisters withdrew from the school in June of 1978, the responsibility of educating Holy Spirit’s youth was passed on to a completely lay staff. Those staff members, and all who followed, have passionately continued the work the sisters began long ago.